“A cease-fire that would leave the status quo ante intact is absolutely unacceptable. A cease-fire that would leave intact a terrorist infrastructure is unacceptable.” — White House spokesman Tony Snow, 18/7/06 (See ‘American imperialism wants war’)

One thing should absolutely clear by now, when it comes to Israel’s actions—the US calls the shots. I trust this lays to rest all those deluded individuals on the ‘left’ who subscribe to the fallacious notion commonly referred to as the ‘tail wagging the dog’.

Let no one be under any illusions about who is pulling the strings here

“The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.

“The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.

"It's clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.” — ‘Bush 'gave green light' for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources’, The Guardian, 17/7/06

Failure in Iraq, failure in the Occupied Territories and failure in Afghanistan has inevitably led to the only option left to US imperialism, that is total destabilisation of the Middle East.

The US, unable to carry it out on its own or with its so-called allies has instructed Israel to do the dirty work on its behalf, a mission it is only too willing to take up, having failed twice before.

As an aside, one has to question the motives of Hezbollah in confronting Israel at this critical juncture. At best, I argue that it was extremely bad planning, at worst, is it too far-fetched to suggest that Hezbullah is infiltrated with agent provocateurs? They have, after all, supplied the US and Israel with the raison d’etre. (This may not be such a far-fetched idea, see ‘Hezbollah website hosted by a US defense subcontractor?’ for more on this)

Be that as it may, creating total chaos enables the US—ably assisted by the MSM, an absolute prerequisite if domestic populations are to be carried along on a wave of hysteria surrounding the alleged ‘terrorist infrastructures’, not to mention the slavish support of the Zionist state—to firstly, destroy the remaining obstacle to resolving the ‘Palestine problem’.

This leaves Syria totally isolated and no match for Israel’s military machine. How long before it capitulates to US demands or risk invasion? And who will rush to defend Syria? Iran? Dream on.

It explains why the utterances of the US and the UK are essentially saying ‘keep on bombing until there’s nothing left of Lebanon’. Why else is Israel taking out Lebanon’s industrial capacity including critical food and medical production, having already destroyed its transportation infrastructure?

“Israel switched gears in its military campaign against Lebanon Monday and Tuesday, launching a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout the country and dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial infrastructure.

“The production facilities of at least five companies in key industrial sectors – including the country’s largest dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm and a pharmaceutical plant – have been disabled or completely destroyed. Industry insiders say the losses will cripple the economy for decades to come.” — ‘Latest targets of air blitz: milk and medicine’, By Lysandra Ohrstrom, Daily Star, Wednesday, July 19, 2006

There is no way these can be described as “terrorist infrastructures”! The objective is plain; reduce Lebanon to a ‘failed state’. No doubt, within a short period of time, the Lebanese government will collapse and a ‘protectorate’ aka Kosovo will be installed, which is where the EU and NATO can be used.

This will leave Hezbollah completely isolated. All that will remain is a ‘mopping up’ operation in the Occupied Territories. Once the Palestinian ‘problem’ is taken care of, the focus will be on Iran. At least this is the theory.

At this juncture, the only thing that could stop this awful scenario from unfolding are the populations of Europe and the US and there seems little likelihood of this happening.

See also Israel — America’s deadly messenger By Shmuel Rosner 19/7/06

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